Man Injured in Collision With Truck

A 49-year-old Ojai man suffered major injuries to his left arm Thursday morning when his car was crushed by a flatbed trailer loaded with 30-foot irrigation pipes, officers said.

William Elsey was recovering Thursday evening after undergoing surgery for major lacerations to his left arm, said a nursing supervisor at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

Elsey was taken by ambulance to the hospital after the 9:30 a.m. collision near Rose and Central avenues in a farming area south of Saticoy, said Officer Keith Bianco of the California Highway Patrol.

Elsey became trapped in his 1988 Nissan pickup truck after colliding with a trailer truck driven by 30-year-old Gilberto Zargoza of Oxnard, Bianco said.

Zargoza and his passenger, 26-year-old Horacio Lara of Oxnard, were traveling east on Central Avenue and hauling 160 pieces of piping when their trailer was struck by Elsey, who was heading south on Rose Avenue, Bianco said.

The vehicles spun for several feet before the trailer swung around and smashed the driver’s side of the Nissan, Bianco said. About half the piping spilled onto the roadway next to the Nissan.

Elsey’s “upper arm was trapped in between the trailer and the back of his cab,” Ventura County Fire Capt. Steve Winter said. “We just tied the piping back with some rope and then cut away parts of the trailer to free him.”

Winter said Elsey was conscious during the process, and Bianco said he was in good spirits at the hospital. Neither Zargoza nor Lara was injured.

A power pole was struck during the accident but no outages were reported, Bianco said. The collision forced the closure of Central Avenue for more than two hours.

Bianco said neither driver was speeding but one of them ran a red light. Both drivers have denied wrongdoing. Any witnesses should contact the CHP, Bianco said.